Budapest

Deportation of the Budapest Jews to the Ghetto
Deportation of the Budapest Jews to the Ghetto

On January 22 1944, as a result of public pressure, President Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board. By that time the details about the murder of the Jews were well known in the West, most of occupied Europe’s Jews had been killed, and the only Jewish community that still existed was Hungary. Despite anti-Jewish legislation and the drafting of Jewish men into forced labor under terrible conditions, Hungary was considered relatively safe from systematic murder. This radically changed on March 19, 1944, when the Germans occupied Hungary. Despite the fact that they were losing on all fronts, Nazi Germany was not ready to give up the primary project of annihilating the Jews. Two months after the occupation they began to deport the Jews from the Hungarian provinces. Within 56 days, close to 450,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz.

In the beginning of July Hungary’s ruler, Horthy ordered to halt the deportations. The 200,000 Jews in Budapest – the only remaining Hungarian Jewish community – were ordered into 2,000 designated buildings that were marked with a Jewish star. In October 1944 Horthy was overthrown and the fascist and radically antisemitic Arrow Cross party seized power, unleashing violence and terror against the Jews. The Jews of Budapest were ordered into a ghetto and many thousands were marched to the Austrian border. Budapest was liberated in January 1945.